Amano Manish

Amano Manish is a gifted slide guitar player trained in the Senia Maihar Gharana tradition, which was founded by Acharya Allauddin Khansahib.

In his early childhood at his hometown Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Manish picked up this unique instrument – the slide guitar – quite naturally after watching his father play popular melodies on it. Later his serious nurturing in Indian classical music started with maestros like Pt. Basant Kabra, an eminent sarod player, and Pt. Brijbhushan Kabra, hailed as the ‘father’ of Indian slide guitar. During this time he also made a documentary film called The Guitar Odyssey for Indian television, depicting the story of how Pt. Kabra came to adapt the guitar for Indian music.

In 1997, after moving to Puné, Manish resumed his musical training withPt. Shekhar Borkar, a master innovative sarod player from the same Gharana tradition. Pt. Borkar inspired him to bring about many changes in the playing techniques of his instrument, and eventually helped him flower in his own style. His renditions are now enriched with tuneful intricate glides and melodic phrases blended with various staccato patterns.

Manish calls his music a celebration of love and meditation, and aspires to share this quality on all his musical journeys.

In his early childhood at his hometown Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Manish picked up this unique instrument – the slide guitar – quite naturally after watching his father play popular melodies on it. Later his serious nurturing in Indian classical music started with maestros like Pt. Basant Kabra, an eminent sarod player, and Pt. Brijbhushan Kabra, hailed as the ‘father’ of Indian slide guitar. During this time he also made a documentary film called The Guitar Odyssey for Indian television, depicting the story of how Pt. Kabra came to adapt the guitar for Indian music.

After Pt. Kabra’s innovative intsroduction of this instrument to the world of Indian classical music, it was left to Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt to successfully take it to audiences worldwide. He aptly calls his model of slide guitar mohanveena, as its hypnotic sound would never fail to mesmerize its listeners.

Another maestro who has taken this instrument to heights of melodic exuberance and technical dexterity is Pt. Debashish Bhattacharya.Hailed by the world press as the ‘fastest slide guitarist alive’, he has designed and developed three models of Indian slide guitar – chaturangui,gandharvi and anandi.

Manish presently plays the model Chaturangui but with some changes in its string arrangement and using his own playing technique.